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Yeah the shittiness of my inspector when I bought straight up cost me $2500.
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Jun 6, 2014 22:15
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Ugh - Radon is 11.4. Not supposed to be higher than 4.0. Guess we start talking to the sellers about getting a mitigation system installed. It's definitely fixable but they probably aren't going to be happy about this. Edit: Looking at the state DHS site, this is not at all uncommon for this particular portion of the state.
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Jun 6, 2014 22:29
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Holy crap. We put an offer in on some adjacent land and it was accepted. The seller's agent told us that they had received a significantly higher offer from a developer, but the seller decided to go with us because he's keen on the land continuing on as farm land.
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Jun 6, 2014 23:05
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Jesus I feel bad for the people living there before you checked it. All the cancer of smoking without the fun. 11 pCi is like smoking a pack a day.
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Jun 6, 2014 23:08
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Bigntasty posted:Jesus I feel bad for the people living there before you checked it. All the cancer of smoking without the fun. 11 pCi is like smoking a pack a day.
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Jun 7, 2014 02:11
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adorai posted:Assuming you spend 24 hours a day in the basement. Most people don't spend more than a few hours per day in the basement. I go into mine to check the sump pump and grab things from storage. In their case, the only thing down there that they actually used was a pool table. In our case, that's where the home theater stuff is going, so poo poo needs to be fixed.
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Jun 7, 2014 03:24
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powderific posted:My girlfriend and I are looking at buying our first house. We pay enough for rent and houses are cheap enough here (like, amazingly cheap to anyone from outside our market) that rent vs. buy calculators are telling me we'll save money by buying within a year and a half or so. I'm a little nervous about the whole process though. I think our real estate agent is OK, and I've got a line on a very good building inspector. My worries are that homes in the area we're looking are probably 1920's vintage or so and I don't really know how much of the way a house is on the inside can be just an "old house, happens" things vs. something that's legitimately worth worrying about. Hey, so just so it's clear: the normal order of operations is that you make an offer on the house and pay "earnest money" which is basically a deposit, but you include "contingencies" which will allow you to back out of the deal and get your earnest money back. Inspection contingency is the most important of these. Once your offer is accepted, then you start paying money for inspections. If you find anything (and with a 1920s house, you will find things), you have the option of negotiating with the seller, ignoring what you find, or backing out. It sucks to back out of a deal after you've paid hundreds of dollars for inspections, so most people will negotiate with the seller if they can - either to fix what's broke, or get cash/reduce the price based on the estimated cost of fixing what's wrong. Two-prong outlets are common even in houses built right up through the 1980s. These are ungrounded circuits suitable for plugging in lamps and clock radios. You can either ground those outlets (which might be easy or might be expensive) or install GFCI outlets (which is not quite as good as grounding them, but does provide pretty good protection from shock) which is cheap and easy. A much bigger question is whether the house has knob-and-tube wiring, or something more modern. Knob and tube is something you have to remove any time you work on any circuit, and is fairly dangerous in any case. Talk to an electrician to get a sense of what the risks are, and what the costs would be, to replace it if you find it. Anyway you are right that 1920s houses are old enough that there will always be issues. My personal feeling is that I'd walk away from a home with significant foundation problems, water table problems (e.g., water coming into a basement when it rains, stuff like that), major mold problems, or major termite/infestation damage. Beyond that, I'd be in my personal comfort level for fixing things. Your own comfort level is up to you.
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Jun 8, 2014 18:32
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Thanks, that's helpful. We decided to go ahead and make an offer on it as the price is very good and we really like the area. Like you said, backing out after paying for the inspection sucks, but stuff seems to be going so fast I think we're just going to be OK with possibly having to back out of it. Losing a few hundred isn't THAT big of deal in the long term.
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Jun 8, 2014 19:37
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The stuff about contingencies is definitely something your agent should have explained to you.
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Jun 8, 2014 19:42
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My wife and I made an offer on a house in the Easy Bay Area, and it was accepted over another offer! However, we then found out that the sellers lost a previous deal on the house because during the inspection, they found a crack in the corner of the house that was approximately 1/2-inch and the buyers walked away. Since then, the seller's paid $5,000 to install a bond beam to provide more lateral support. The same company also noted that there was some sloping in the floors at slightly over 1-inch for 20 feet. These are all obviously signs of foundation problems, and we're planning to have a structural engineer inspect the house. Should we just walk away from this or wait and see if the structural engineer thinks it's manageable? Some searching says that if the floors continue to slope then we could face $30-40,000 in repairs, which seems terrifying to me.
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Jun 8, 2014 22:49
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Leperflesh posted:The stuff about contingencies is definitely something your agent should have explained to you. Yeah, if I would have been more patient she did explain that stuff to me when we went in to talk about what the offer would be.
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Jun 9, 2014 00:36
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Yoked posted:sloping in the floors at slightly over 1-inch for 20 feet Jesus, if this is bad my house is apparently going to fall into the earth tomorrow. When was it built, what kind of foundation, how does it look generally? Not saying I know anything about foundations or that you shouldn't hire a structural engineer to look at it but my first guess is he giggles and pats you kindly on the back.
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Jun 9, 2014 01:08
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slap me silly posted:Jesus, if this is bad my house is apparently going to fall into the earth tomorrow. When was it built, what kind of foundation, how does it look generally? Not saying I know anything about foundations or that you shouldn't hire a structural engineer to look at it but my first guess is he giggles and pats you kindly on the back. Sorry I probably should have added that info. The house is almost 40 years old and sits on what I believe is a post and pier foundation on a hill. Other than the slight slope in the floors that is observable in some rooms, I did some scanning on the outside the two times we looked at the house and did not see any cracks, but that doesn't mean there may not be problems even with the repairs the sellers made. I might be acting paranoid about it and just wanted to see the opinions of some other home buyers since foundation problems tend to be red flags.
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Jun 9, 2014 04:04
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Mine still has some cedar trunks holding up the floors. In fairness though I do know somebody who had to spend 10 grand getting the corner of his foundation pinned together right after he bought, so...
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Jun 9, 2014 04:35
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Yoked posted:My wife and I made an offer on a house in the Easy Bay Area Good thing you aren't putting in offers in the Difficult Bay Area, the market over there is crazy. However, I would see what the engineer says first. If you have any uneasiness, hire a second one or walk.
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Jun 9, 2014 05:00
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Foundation problems are common in the Bay Area, although mostly with the houses built during and before the 1950s. For a house built in the 70s, that's maybe a little more worrisome. We have a lot of small earthquakes all the time here; if it's settling because of that, it could get worse. Another issue is inadequate drainage around the eaves, I saw a lot of houses where the rain gutters just emptied out onto the ground by the walls and you could see how foundation walls had tipped as the ground successively saturated and dried over the years. A half inch of movement is not necessarily super serious, but coupled with the sloping floors, I agree with the others; have a structural engineer inspect the foundation during your contingency period, and then act based on the results. If the house needs anything more than cosmetic repair to the foundation, I'd run away.
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Jun 9, 2014 06:49
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Speaking of gutters, what are some options when rainspouts come down directly on a sidewalk with no clearance between it and the house, if that makes sense? The house we're buying has 2 drainspouts that can't really be piped anywhere without blocking the sidewalk, and with the sidewalk going adjacent to the house, piping it under and through a tube under is going to be a pain as well. The only thing I can think of is jackhammering a channel and lining it with something and putting a grating or something over it to create a tunnel in the sidewalk itself, and then try to hose it away after the sidewalk (the sidewalk is on a bit of a hill so that's plausible, I think.) Does that sound like an actual option? Are there any better options that aren't "just block the sidewalk?" I don't know if moving the downspouts is really an option either, and I can't picture extending the downspout away from the gutter at the gutter level and having it come down without building some sort of arch or truss work for stability.
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Jun 9, 2014 18:44
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I have a similar situation, and cutting a channel for a drain grate was what I figured was the right solution. I have never gotten around to it because it seems like such a giant pain in the rear end. If you do, don't gently caress up your foundation with the sidewalk being so close to the house.
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Jun 9, 2014 18:50
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slap me silly posted:I have a similar situation, and cutting a channel for a drain grate was what I figured was the right solution. I have never gotten around to it because it seems like such a giant pain in the rear end. If you do, don't gently caress up your foundation with the sidewalk being so close to the house. I'll probably have someone who knows what the gently caress they're doing help with that, because I sure as poo poo don't and I tend to shy away from things that I don't know what I'm doing if they may end up costing more to repair than they would have to just do it right in the first place.
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Jun 9, 2014 19:31
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You may also be able to relocate the down-spout to a different spot on your roof gutter. Obviously the farther water has to go, the more likely it'll drain too slowly, sediment will build up, etc. so you can't take this to an extreme. But if moving the gutter six feet over would get you a better place to properly drain it, that's not very hard to accomplish.
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Jun 9, 2014 21:38
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LloydDobler posted:You want to know at minimum the details of the HOA's financials in terms of their reserves. I didn't know when I moved in that my HOA had $5,000 in reserves for about 180 units. So if a hailstorm hit and destroyed our roofs, we'd be out of pocket. The new board is pissing everyone off by raising the dues the maximum amount every year but at least we're on the way to being loving solvent now. I laugh when people bitch at the HOA meetings because it's typical financial idiot america. "I can't afford another $10 a month!" gently caress you, I can't afford to re-roof the whole complex. We're about 60% of where we ought to be right now. Yeah, I asked for this stuff, and it has been a huge pain in the rear end. Going on two weeks and they still haven't gotten it to me. I'm mostly annoyed because the communication hasn't really been there between all parties. My attorney seems to think my request for financials is unusual, which worries me about him. This entire process is stressful and frustrating. The bank already did the appraisal, but I still haven't gotten HOA docs, and if those are a problem, I spend that money on the appraisal for nothing. Maybe that should have been obvious, but I really wish my agent had broken the steps down what I should be spending money on at what time, and talked me through it a bit more.
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Jun 9, 2014 22:21
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Sataere posted:My attorney seems to think my request for financials is unusual, which worries me about him. Most people just sign the papers and hope for the best. I don't doubt that digging in to the financials of the HOA is out of the ordinary.
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Jun 9, 2014 23:02
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Sataere posted:My attorney seems to think my request for financials is unusual, which worries me about him. It is unusual. That doesn't mean it isn't the right request to make.
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Jun 9, 2014 23:11
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So most people are dumbasses? Got it.
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Jun 10, 2014 15:56
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Anyone know of a good guide for deciding between doing FSBO, limited-service, and full service when selling?
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Jun 10, 2014 16:39
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Sataere posted:So most people are dumbasses? Got it. To be fair to most people (even though they probably are dumbasses), they don't have the benefit of this thread advising them on HOA selection. They're just listening to their realtor, who generally has little interest in recommending additional work that reduces the chance of earning the commission.
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Jun 10, 2014 17:01
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Zhentar posted:To be fair to most people (even though they probably are dumbasses), they don't have the benefit of this thread advising them on HOA selection. They're just listening to their realtor, who generally has little interest in recommending additional work that reduces the chance of earning the commission. I didn't even have this thread. I just had my dad tell me to look it over. He insists on reviewing it himself, because he used to be on the board of his own association.
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Jun 10, 2014 17:29
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So my mortgage broker just told me in my income bracket, PMI is tax deductible. I was under the impression it never was. Is there something I am missing here?
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Jun 10, 2014 19:26
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Sataere posted:So my mortgage broker just told me in my income bracket, PMI is tax deductible. I was under the impression it never was. Is there something I am missing here? I believe in 2013 it was phased out 10% for every $1,000 your income was over 100k. So if your AGI was over 109k then you didn't get it at all. However in 2014 who knows what it will be, I don't think congress has decided. It may not be deductible for anyone. 2006 was the first year it was. So it's pretty irresponsible for your broker to say it is IMO.
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Jun 10, 2014 19:36
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Dijkstra posted:I believe in 2013 it was phased out 10% for every $1,000 your income was over 100k. So at 95k per year, the entire thing was deductible in 2013? She has been very up front with costs and estimates and her numbers have been conservative, if anything. She provides all relevant documentation I ask for from her in a timely manner. I still can't get past the fact that she seems shady, despite having no evidence to the contrary.
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Jun 10, 2014 21:09
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Sataere posted:So at 95k per year, the entire thing was deductible in 2013? 95k AGI should be under the limit as long you were single or married filing jointly. Married filing separately the AGI limit is a lot lower. She's probably just assuming that the PMI interest deduction will be brought back in 2014... She *could* turn out to be correct, but it's an assumption. However, AFAIK it's currently not in effect. Meaning, the law allowing folks to deduct PMI died on Dec 31, 2013. I would ask in the tax thread for more insight, I'm not an accountant, I just work with 10 of them. Here's a short discusison on FatWallet
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Jun 10, 2014 21:28
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Dijkstra posted:95k AGI should be under the limit as long you were single or married filing jointly. Thanks for the link. It was informative.
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Jun 10, 2014 22:00
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Yup the fact PMI/MIP might stop being deductible is one reason we're now looking at refinancing (again) - to get out of our FHA loan and use the appraisal to get above 80% LTV so we can dump it. We already itemize and we're paying $209 a month in MIP, so if we can refi for something reasonably close to 4% we'll be actually saving the full $209/mo. Possibly. Unless they renew it, but the sense I get is that lately congress has been somewhat anti-helping out homeowners as a reaction to the mortgage crisis, so I could definitely see them not taking action to renew it. Probably what will actually happen is I'll refi, accepting a slightly higher APR and a new 30 year loan, and then they'll renew the law and I'll be a sad panda.
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Jun 11, 2014 01:17
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Leperflesh posted:Yup the fact PMI/MIP might stop being deductible is one reason we're now looking at refinancing (again) - to get out of our FHA loan and use the appraisal to get above 80% LTV so we can dump it. We already itemize and we're paying $209 a month in MIP, so if we can refi for something reasonably close to 4% we'll be actually saving the full $209/mo. Possibly. Unless they renew it, but the sense I get is that lately congress has been somewhat anti-helping out homeowners as a reaction to the mortgage crisis, so I could definitely see them not taking action to renew it. Run the numbers. Prob best to refi.
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Jun 11, 2014 01:23
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Leperflesh posted:we're paying $209 a month in MIP,
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Jun 11, 2014 01:32
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Leperflesh posted:Yup the fact PMI/MIP might stop being deductible is one reason we're now looking at refinancing (again) - to get out of our FHA loan and use the appraisal to get above 80% LTV so we can dump it. We already itemize and we're paying $209 a month in MIP, so if we can refi for something reasonably close to 4% we'll be actually saving the full $209/mo. Possibly. Unless they renew it, but the sense I get is that lately congress has been somewhat anti-helping out homeowners as a reaction to the mortgage crisis, so I could definitely see them not taking action to renew it. One thing I looked at often when working as a loan officer was how long the client planned on staying in the home. Generally speaking, most 30 year fha loans take 8 to 9 years to naturally amortize to 78% ltv. Since the 5years or 22% equity is whatever is longer, most people are on the hook for 8 years plus. Keep in mind after a streamline, you typically do not speed up your natural amoritzation schedule, so for most clients over the past few years, the are paying 1.10% or more for at least the next 5 years. Lets say you took a 4.5% now, you drop the mip and likely save 60-80 bucks a month for somewhere between 48 to 72 months. Once the mip falls off, your payment is probably lower by a very similar amount compared to your payment post conventional refi. As a result, typically it is going to take another 24 to 36 months to give back your savings. If the average american moves or refis in 5 to 7 year periods, the more appealing fha rate still doesnt make sense, because most people dont stay around long enough to see it. Ymmv but if you have a higher mip rate, it does make sense to make a switch, even at .75 higher in rate, if not more.
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Jun 11, 2014 01:32
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Dik Hz posted:Wow, that's not what I would call a free refi, but w/e This has nothing to do with a refi, it is the current mip rate he is considering dropping. Leperflesh, would save better than in my hypothetical.
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Jun 11, 2014 01:37
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Dik Hz posted:Wow, that's not what I would call a free refi, but w/e With my first refi, I went from %5 to %3.25 interest rate, but MIP actually went up. It was still a significant net savings per month, and in terms of the cash cost of the refi, it was effectively free. We also received a partial refund of the up-front mortgage insurance premium (because what had happened, was FHA had raised the MIP while lowering the up-front) and that cash was part of why the refi was free. Now, we are considering another refi because we can probably get close to 4%, which is only a .75% to maybe 1% rate increase. And while we were probably underwater back in 2011 when we did the first (streamline FHA) refi (which meant we couldn't refi into a conventional to get rid of MIP at that time), we are now well above water and can use the new equity to get above 80% and get rid of mortgage insurance entirely. SiGmA_X posted:And deductibility isn't the same thing at all as simply not paying it. Something like 30-50% savings vs 100%, your income and tax situation dictates savings % obviously. That is absolutely true, and I was already aware of it, but it's good to point it out since so many people confuse a deduction with a credit. We're in California, so we pay CA income tax on top of the federal, and I don't remember if CA also let you take that deduction or not so I'm not sure what the exact number is, but it's probably around 35% or so. gtkor posted:One thing I looked at often when working as a loan officer was how long the client planned on staying in the home. Generally speaking, most 30 year fha loans take 8 to 9 years to naturally amortize to 78% ltv. Since the 5years or 22% equity is whatever is longer, most people are on the hook for 8 years plus. Keep in mind after a streamline, you typically do not speed up your natural amoritzation schedule, so for most clients over the past few years, the are paying 1.10% or more for at least the next 5 years. This is very much the difficulty factor in doing my math. We're at 3.25%, and I've based my assumptions on 4.17 (it was around there a couple weeks ago but went up last week, so maybe 4.25ish is more realistic). We bought four and a half years ago, and will certainly be here for another four to six years, but after that I'm not sure. It's possible we'll stay in the home long enough that we'd pay it off entirely, but I think it's more likely that we'll "upgrade" some time in the next 30 years. An additional complicating factor is that we may decide to keep making payments the same as we were before (e.g., put more money towards principal each month) to accelerate the loan. Or just save cash and make some home improvements instead, since the house could use kitchen and bathroom remodels. The former would affect the long-term numbers and the latter would affect resale value. Here are my notes from last week: pre:minimum 29 months left of MIP Value (for FHA purposes): $240,800 78% LTV = $187,824.00 monthly MIP: $209.62 Current loan amount: $220,352.94 Current LTV: 91.5% Current payments (Principal 383.22 + interest 689.80): $1073.02 plus escrow 529.49 $1594.51 Supposing home value of 300,000 LTV would be: 73.45% (Zillow home value estimate: $309,991) Amortization table says loan amount at 60 months (Nov. 2016): $ 208,703.43 LTV at 60 months: 86.67% MIP payments at 60 months: 6078.98 Amount I'd need to pay down principal at that point in order to eliminate MIP (78% LTV): $20,879.43 Without making extra payments, LTV gets to 78% on: October 2020 that's 76 months 76 x $209.62 = $15,931.12 in MIP by then. Refi option: Refinance now into 4.12% Payments (principal plus interest): 1067.30 month 1: Principal: 310.75 Interest: 756.55 Escrow: 322.74 Total: 1390.04 Nov 2016 loan amount: $ 210,894.19 pre-tax savings between now and Nov. 2016: (1594.51 - 1390.04 = 204.47 x 29) = $5,929.63 Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 02:17
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Keep in mind fha loans do not factor for acclerated payments. Per your math, it will be on there for over 70 months, because that is the natural schedule. In your very specific case id strongly consider something like a 10/1 arm. The ten year fixed period may already be long enough for your likely life of the home, but even if it is not, you could considerably hammer down the principal over the next decade with no mip. Theres nothing wrong with staying on the 30 fix, but even with a good broker you wont get 4.125 with the lender discount paying origination and 3rd party, but on a 10 year arm, youd like refi for the payoff balance at below 4 percent ( assuming you are able to bring your escrows and prepaid interest to close)
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Jun 11, 2014 03:15
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The first page kind of glosses over "get approved for reals." I was preapproved by 1 lender, went looking at houses, and have an offer out right now. I was speaking with another lender that looks much better, but they basically said that I wouldn't qualify putting 10% down or even 20%, that I'd need 25% down. It must be based on annual income which I make ~18.5% of estimated home value (home value estimate is above what I offered to pay or would pay but what I asked for in loan). They told me this before running my credit score since they have a small fee and wanted to make sure I wanted to go through with it. I have good credit. 740+ last I checked, but I've heard they do something different for home loans? I also have no debt. I'm sure the answer is "it depends," but would I be approved based on the above? How much of a hassle would having a cosigner be? Especially if cosigner is out of state? Does being preapproved even mean anything since I've been shot down by the other lender? Should I look for a new lender? Or maybe look into an FHA loan - 1 lender offered to pay all closing costs with this? I'm already stressed, confused, and don't know what to do. The loan process hasn't even started... Any advice would be appreciated.
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Jun 11, 2014 05:33
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